小圆叶冬青 xiao yuan ye dong qing

Ilex intricata J. D. Hooker var. oblata W. E. Evans; I. oblata (W. E. Evans) H. F. Comber.

Trees evergreen, small, 3-5 m tall, glabrous throughout. Branchlets brown or gray, terete; young ones longitudinally ridged and sulcate, ridges densely corky verruculose; old branchlets smooth, nearly not verruculose; terminal buds narrowly ovoid; bud scales glabrous or puberulent. Leaves on first to third year’s branchlets; petiole 4-5 mm, slender, narrowly sulcate; leaf blade broadly elliptic, rarely broadly obovate or broadly ovate, 0.5-1.7 × 0.5-1.2 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 3 or 4 pairs, and reticulate veins slightly raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, base obtuse or cuneate, margin slightly reflexed, with 4-9 pairs of teeth, apex obtuse-rounded, acumen. Inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, solitary or few fascicled, fascicles 2- or 3-flowered, axillary on second year’s branchlets. Male inflorescences: pedicels ca. 4 mm; bracteoles 2, subbasal; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., deeply 4-lobed, lobes suborbicular, glabrous, not ciliate; corolla greenish, rotate, ca. 4 mm in diam., petals 4, ovate, ca. 2 mm, glabrous, not ciliate, basally slightly connate; stamens 4, shorter than petals, anthers ovoid; rudimentary ovary globose, apex rounded. Female flowers not known. Infructescences: 1- or 2-fruited; fruiting pedicels 2.5-3 mm; bracteoles 2, basal, narrowly ovate, not ciliate. Fruit red, subglobose, 3-3.5 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate, subquadrangular, 4-lobed, lobes subrounded, glabrous; persistent style evident, stigma discoid, 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, ellipsoidal, ca. 3 mm, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., both ends obtuse, abaxially convex, longitudinally 3- or 4-striate, nearly smooth, laterally smooth, endocarp leathery. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Oct-Nov.

Broad-leaved forests, Tsuga forests, slopes, hills; 2000-3000 m. SE Xizang (Mêdog), W Yunnan (Fugong, Gongshan, Tengchong) [N India, N Myanmar].